Clara Matonhodze:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Roots, Routes, and Voices: Voices That Shape America, a Cincinnati Compass podcast. I’m your host and creator of the series, Clara McDonoughton.

Bryan Wright:
And I’m Bryan Wright, executive director of Cincinnati Compass and your cohost. Before we dive in, the views and stories shared on this podcast are those of our guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cincinnati Compass. We believe every voice has a place, especially when it shapes the future of our cities.

Clara Matonhodze:
On this podcast, we delve into the heart of the American experience through the lens of its most vital asset, its people. And in this series, we serve as your campus, guiding you through the rich and unexpected immigrant stories rooted right here in the Cincinnati region. Today’s story begins with one word, pineapple. In Zimbabwe, that means “once upon a time.” And once upon a time, a Zimbabwean storyteller landed in Cincinnati and pulled off the ultimate hat trick, infiltrating the worlds of America’s largest megachurch, city hall, and comedy scene.

Bryan Wright:
That’s right. Our guest today, David Chumusoro, might just be living the most unexpected version of the American dream or pulling off the longest-running comedy bid in Midwest history.

Clara Matonhodze:
From shaping digital strategy at Crossroads Church to advising civic narratives at city hall to bringing down the house at comedy clubs across the city, David is the thread weaving humor, heart, and history into Cincinnati’s fabric. Let’s get into it. David, welcome to Roots, Routes, and Voices: Voices That Shape America. We’ve got a lot to cover, but let’s start where it all begins. What kind of kid were you back in Zimbabwe? Let’s get into it. Alright, David. So the first question that I have for you is something that I am always curious about when I meet people or when I see people, and I want to know their origin story.

Clara Matonhodze:
Right? Because I think each of us has a specific picture…

Bryan Wright:
Yeah.

Clara Matonhodze:
Of some time in our childhood.

David Chimusoro:
Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
So I want you to paint a picture like that for me. Like, paint a picture of me of David, young David. Uh-huh. Growing up in Zimbabwe. What was that like?

David Chimusoro:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I grew up in a very artistic family. My dad is a musician and also fixed airplane engines. Like, he’s, yeah, fixed airplane engines by trade but loved music. My mom was a nurse, so we grew up in a very kind of expressive family. So my dad, because of, just kind of like his personal story of just kind of like a kid who had this massive curiosity, just built kids who had all this massive curiosity and then put that in the context of Zimbabwe was, I was just always this very confident kid who was just like, “I’m gonna say what I think and then see,” and then watched everybody. Yeah. Let’s see what happens.

Clara Matonhodze:
How many beatings did that get you?

David Chimusoro:
Not a lot because I was always good at a joke. So it’s like, you can’t be mad. You’re the one that laughed. And that was kind of how I was there. I grew up, yeah. I grew up and lived in Zimbabwe from my first stint, like, from zero to seven. My family moved here in Cincinnati, lived here for a year. Okay. Just because there were just opportunities that my dad was seeking out really just because, like, he was seeing that there was opportunity in Zimbabwe or in Cincinnati a little bit.

David Chimusoro:
So that’s kinda like my first foray into learning the United States. So I got to see what it was. For about a year, I realized, alright. This is maybe not the time for us to make this move, so we went back home. I loved music, highly athletic, very competitive, but I did, I like to always leave it on the floor. There’s a video of me as a kid. I’m 12 years old. We’re a lion in a cheetah bear.

Clara Matonhodze:
Video? Okay. Not yourself. Look for that video.

David Chimusoro:
And there’s a fence that’s about this thing, and there’s a lion on the other side. And there’s, like, maybe seven to 10-year-old me who’s, like, straight up trying to size this lion up. And at one point, I see the video end and I just go and I’m like, “Why are you trying to fight a lion? You are a child. What is wrong with you?” And I think that’s how I’ve always kind of been.

Clara Matonhodze:
Uh-huh.

David Chimusoro:
And I grew up in a family that was loving and capable and empowered every single part of me to be the best version, which means, like, we show up, we work hard, and we care about the people around us in all the things that we do. And, yeah, I’ve always just kind of like, I wanna see what, not necessarily what I can get away with, all of the things that I can possibly do that are within my capability. I’ve always kinda wanted to do that ever since I was a kid. Like, I’ve watched people like Michael Jordan, and I’m like, “I wanna play against Michael Jordan.” And that was just, that was just like what my mind would immediately go to. Uh-huh. And

Bryan Wright:
Wait. To beat him.

David Chimusoro:
I wanna just play him.

Bryan Wright:
So if we, if we, I mean, that’s still Michael Jordan. Right?

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah.

David Chimusoro:
I always just like, “I wanna play against whoever the best one is at whatever that thing that I’m looking at. I wanna play against them and see how that feels.” Mhmm. And I was just, I guess that’s how I always was.

Clara Matonhodze:
So where, so which era is this? Is this like the late nineties? What? Late nineties or early two thousands?

David Chimusoro:
So I was born in 1994. So this is

Clara Matonhodze:
Oh, yes. So yeah.

David Chimusoro:
I’m like, “I’m a baby. Such a baby.” And also part of it is like being part of the whole born-free generation. I remember when I was a kid, people would just refer to

Bryan Wright:
Kids my age are “born free, born free, born free.”

Clara Matonhodze:
Born free. Yes. Uh-huh. Because you were born after the independence of Zimbabwe. Born after 1980. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah.

David Chimusoro:
So that mentality was a very powerful one to kind of grow up in, especially in the education system that we were in because there was like all this possibility that was just like, “Hey, guess what? We are a new nation. We’re trying to make a mark on the world. So and you are it. So go learn. Go be. No one can tell you anything except for the good things. Just work hard and show that we are welcome to the world. What’s up? It’s us.”

David Chimusoro:
And that was just kind of like how we were molded, and with the mindset that I kinda had already, it was just like this cocktail of confidence that I was just given ever since I was a kid. Yeah. And the power was just like being a Zimbabwean person, we very much care about storytelling. Like, our language is just particularly the Shona people, it’s just that we just love stories. Our language is structured for story, and it was always like, “Make sure that you have a good name that leaves a good story,” is such a thesis, in so many of the lessons that we learned growing up. But yeah. Sorry if I’m going over.

Clara Matonhodze:
So you’re talking about something just okay to me. You know, earlier when I was asking you how many beatings did you get, Frank? It makes sense now because you’re born free. Whereas I was born before independence. Right? And so grew up with a lot of structure around what you’re allowed to say and what you’re not allowed to say. So any stupid questions, you know, “stupid” in air quotes would easily either get you a shoe dropping on your head. Uh-huh. You know, a spoon, whatever my parents had as a way of just shutting you up. You know? So but bonafides, yes. I have a very vivid memory of children born after the independence of Zimbabwe after 1980 are very free because they are supposed to be free thinkers.

David Chimusoro:
Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
And the world is your oyster.

Bryan Wright:
Go for it. Just go for it.

Clara Matonhodze:
So you’re definitely a child of that. 10000%.

David Chimusoro:
And, I mean, there was, like, a thing, like, I had some teachers who were definitely not a fan. Like, when I was a kid where I’m just, it’s just like, I’ve got a question. I’m just like, “So what do you mean by that?” And it’s like a seven-year-old asking an adult. That’s just so there are definitely times when

Clara Matonhodze:
Kids are not supposed to be heard. They’re just supposed to be seen. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah.

David Chimusoro:
And I was like, nah. I’m gonna do it. And my, like, my dad too was very much just like, very protective of me because he was just like, “There’s something about this kid.” And it made me just because he just saw himself and he was just like, “I like what he has to say, so shut up.” And I’m just like, “Okay.” And that was just kind of like how my dad was sometimes around me, and I think that was just very protective as I grew older and just kind of like that molding and having that was just so powerful to be and see.

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah. Yeah.

Bryan Wright:
So you were talking about and you mentioned he was a musician. Mhmm. And an engineer. Mhmm. What type of engineer? What music, what, what, what instrument did he play? Or instruments he played?

David Chimusoro:
He plays guitar, bass, and he kinda dabbles with the drums. I played the drums, a little bit of guitar, and reggae, reggae, reggae. My dad loves reggae. He loves Bob Marley.

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah. 

Bryan Wright:
Yeah. Bob.

David Chimusoro:
My dad was at Rufaro Stadium when he was 14. Oh, wow. For independence, and that memory stuck with him, like, “Here’s what it looks like to have a big show,” and everyone is just there in this. Again, the bigness of it, like, that is, I can tell even just the way he talks about it was a core memory for my dad.

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah.

David Chimusoro:
Yeah. It was powerful.

Bryan Wright:
Yes. Bob Marley was actually, you mentioned, reggae. Bob Marley was actually my introduction to understanding Zimbabwe or at least even knowing the place existed. Mhmm. To the songs Zimbabwe.

Clara Matonhodze:
Songs Zimbabwe.

Bryan Wright:
Bible album, right? And that was my introduction to learn, and you know, I think, I mean, the song starts off like, “Every man deserves the freedom to choose to be free,” right?

David Chimusoro:
Yes. Every man has a right to decide his own destiny. Yeah. I know that song. Bye.

Clara Matonhodze:
Can we get the rights

David Chimusoro:
To that in place?

Bryan Wright:
And then went from there, but that’s that’s great. And so you were born in ’94. You said ‘7, you were there in Zimbabwe and came to the US, and, like, what brought your family here to the US? Like, what was the choice? Like, we always ask Clara, and I always talk about us neither of us being here from Cincinnati, just kinda like, how in the heck did you end up here?

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah. Yeah.

David Chimusoro:
I mean, because of the upbringing of my dad, he was a pastor as well. So there were some churches that we were connected to in Cincinnati, and people were just kind of like, “Who’s this guy? He seems like he’s got something about him.” So there’s kind of just like an invitation for opportunity to be able to kind of like, “Hey. Let’s take the family here. Let’s see what we can do,” for about a year. And then if it works out, it works out. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. He’s always been kind of like a test pilot guy that way.

David Chimusoro:
So I think around ’02, he was talking to Boeing about a job. And then it was just like, “Oh, turns out your certifications are only valid really in Zimbabwe.” So we know you can fix a plane, but sorry. And that was just kind of like, I think that initial rejection of sorts of his skill set was just tough for us as a family because his whole mentality was like, “Planes don’t speak English. It’s right.” That’s literally, he was like, “He could just do the thing, and I could do the thing. So why are you?” And he was just like, “Alright. Cool.”

David Chimusoro:
“I’m gonna go back home. We’ll revisit this when he gets later.” And then, yeah, that was that was that chapter. So we’re gonna try it out, see what we could do. Didn’t work out, went back to Zimbabwe, and then back to the drawing board.

Clara Matonhodze:
Wow. So your dad is really as varied as you are.

David Chimusoro:
Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
You know, in this. So he is an engineer. He’s a musician. And you mentioned something else?

David Chimusoro:
Pastor.

Clara Matonhodze:
Oh, yeah. A pastor. Yeah. A pastor. Yeah. So the hatred thing we talked about earlier isn’t so far. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? So, David, tell me I wanna know a little bit about some of the stories that you’re a storyteller, you know, a really great storyteller.

Bryan Wright:
Yep.

Clara Matonhodze:
And what are some of the stories that shaped the way you see the world? You talked about Zimbabweans being great storytellers, and I totally agree. Yeah. But what are some of those stories, you know, maybe one or two that shaped the way you see the world?

David Chimusoro:
Yeah. There’s, so in the Shona tradition, where there are these things called, like, our folk tales. And my grandmother used to tell me a lot of these when we did this every Sunday, whenever we went to visit her. And there was a story that she told about essentially a woman who wanted a child, and she was barren. So she prayed to the gods to give her a child, and then a god told her, “You can make a child out of clay, but you must never wash it.” So mold the child out of clay, and then this child starts to live, but everybody is like, “You’re not a real person. You’re made out of clay. You’re not a real person.”

David Chimusoro:
“You’re made out of clay.” So this child starts to feel insecure, and then the mother basically decides to start to wash the child, and then the child starts to evaporate because it was made out of clay. And for me, the lesson in that is always just kinda, “Don’t try to force something that is in there because it’s always gonna lose at the end of the day.” Or even just kinda like, there’s I think there’s a whole lot more to the story, but I think what kinda stuck to me is just kinda like, whenever you try to mold your own version out of clay, it’s always bound to dissipate. Mhmm. And I think that one was a very core story, she was just that good of a storyteller where she went through the whole journey where you could feel this story, and we’re just around, like, a fire at her house.

Clara Matonhodze:
Uh-huh.

David Chimusoro:
But that one, particularly kinda like, I don’t know, molded a little bit of

Clara Matonhodze:
It’s a bit of a horror story.

David Chimusoro:
A little bit. A little bit.

Clara Matonhodze:
I can see young kids sitting around the fire, and you’re talking about this child who ultimately melts or disintegrates. Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
It can be, but also it was like a thing, like, there were some funny ones she told. There were some scary ones she told. Mhmm. But it’s like, “Is that not life, though?”

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah. Yeah. Cautionary tales.

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah. There’s a lot of cautionary tales in Zimbabwean culture.

David Chimusoro:
Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
And that’s in any culture, really.

David Chimusoro:
In any culture.

Clara Matonhodze:
So yeah.

David Chimusoro:
That was that, but also I really loved funny things. I’m trying to, we grew up in a lot of, like, in a movie household. My dad bought so many DVDs. And I remember Spider-Man for some reason sticking out. Like Spider-Man, I’m not kidding you. I would, after school every single day, run home, and I would just watch Spider-Man every single day to the point where I memorized the dialogue. And I could literally speak along to this entire movie. My poor family has to get home every single day, and I’m like, “Listen.”

David Chimusoro:
“Hey. You’re gonna have to deal with this. I’m really into this thing.” So, like, I don’t know. There was just the boyhood nature of Spider-Man really just spoke to me. Like, he’s, like, the only superhero with a part-time job, and something about that just always kinda stuck to me.

David Chimusoro:
But I loved the movie Gladiator so much. Jackie Chan was Jackie Chan.

Clara Matonhodze:
So would your mom let you watch that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. I guess you did. Yeah. What is she like, by the way? We talked about your dad. What’s your mom like as a Zimbabwean mother, typical African mother, if this?

David Chimusoro:
Oh my gosh. God’s super soldier, that lady.

Clara Matonhodze:
God’s super soldier.

David Chimusoro:
Like the prayer warrior. That thing. And also just kind of, like, intense work ethic but like brings people into it. Like, I’ve never met someone like that. My mom is a person who is always able to just bring people in on a mission. She’s quiet the entire time, watches everyone, watches everything. But when it came down to, it’s like, “Here’s how we put structure to vision,” like, she was always, like, the wisdom of our family. Like, we have a family of a lot of ability, but wisdom is the thing which is, like, “Here’s how you put structure into a lot of these things.” So if you have a plan or you have a vision that you want, cool.

David Chimusoro:
“It’s only just living in your head until you see movement,” and that’s someone who just kind of modeled that, like, at, like, 50, decided, “I want to re-get certified to be a nurse because I can see my pathway to doing that and waking up at three or four AM just to study and did it.” Like, while working, while taking care of family, while off because we’re all on the way up and still trying to figure out this American thing. And she’s just like, “Alright. I know what I’ve got around me. I know how to move these things.” And for me, she’s always been an awesome challenger of anything that I wanted to do. And I’ve, and I’ve, and I’ve also been able to kind of, through building things, being able to say, “No, this is working.”

David Chimusoro:
“This is working.” I’m just like, “Alright. If you want to play against Michael Jordan, are you practicing every day, or is this something that you just say because it makes you feel good?” Yeah. Or you wanna be a director, but you don’t have a short film. So who’s gonna do this for you because the world sure isn’t? So it was just kind of, but also kind of, like, in the highs, always there. When it crashes, when it would crash at points, right there, and it was always just like, “Oh, man. Mom’s here. Dope.” Because she builds things. I was gonna say a bad word, but, like, she builds things. I’m gonna say it’s gonna be the yes word, but, yeah, that’s what my mom does.

Clara Matonhodze:
Would she approve?

David Chimusoro:
Approve at this point. She doesn’t have a choice.

Clara Matonhodze:
I’ve seen your, I’ve seen your comedy and I’ve seen your mom go, “Oh my gosh.”

David Chimusoro:
So I have a very good idea of what she wants. Approves is a different word, understands, yeah.

Clara Matonhodze:
So tell us, when did you first realize you were funny? Or where or when did you tell your first joke that people really loved it and you realized this talent?

David Chimusoro:
Can’t remember, honestly.

Clara Matonhodze:
Was it here in Cincinnati or when you were still growing up in Zimbabwe?

David Chimusoro:
I’d say probably still in Zimbabwe because it was always a thing of just, like, I would say things sometimes and people be like, “Whose kid is this?” And my reaction was always, “It stuck with me.” And I don’t remember the first time I said something that made people go, “And that,” and I just, it was just kind of a thing that was just there. And I learned comedy as an art form when I moved here, like, “Oh, this is a thing that, like, stand-up comedy being a very American art form,” I learned especially through, like, my buddy Zach. I’m just like, “Here’s the open mic scene where you go and test out jokes where it’s like, if you have a thought and it makes you go inside, there is something that you’ve captured within yourself that makes you have a view of the world that made you go, ‘That’s funny.’” And then you write that down, then you just test it out in front of people to say, “Hey. Here’s what I think. Is this something that we objectively are into as an idea, or does it bring levity, or do you guys understand the story of even how I got there? And is my presentation good enough where we can both have the desired reaction, which is laughter?” And because that’s at the end of the day, a comedy show is like people come in for service. If you are good, you provide service, and then people pay you for service, and then you can just continue the service of comedy. And I think laughter was just something that I was always really drawn to because every single person is interacting with people and the people around them and how people react to your presence and how people reacted to my presence was always important because I was like, “Oh, if you’re just a bad presence around people, people are gonna kind of like not block your way.”

David Chimusoro:
“You’re just gonna find your way blocked a lot more because you are not someone that gives to the energy of a room or the presence of a place.” So laughter was always the thing that I always found was, “Oh, even in just, like, how do we make time fly? If people are laughing and we’re having a good time, thirty minutes goes by and it doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, what a slog.’” Comedy teaches you real time, where five minutes can be an hour or thirty seconds depending on how many laughs per second that you can or how many laughs that you can just produce into a room.

Bryan Wright:
You were talking about storytelling earlier, right, and just how that has shaped who you are and such. When you’re, and even talking about storytelling from crafting the story to telling it and how it’s received and how it molds and evolves over time, the storytelling, as you understand, it helped to influence how you craft your comedy. You know, sometimes it’s punchlines versus storytelling and, like, how do they relate or not?

David Chimusoro:
They are married to each other in a way. To, I think about comedy as just an American industry version of the thing that I grew up hearing, which is, “Gather around, let’s hear a story.” And how fun that is. Sometimes it’s like, “Come gather around, let’s hear a horror story,” because some part of the stand-up comedy has been as an art form the thing that always makes America go, “Hey. Look at what you’re doing. Remember what you’re doing. This is what you actually look like.”

David Chimusoro:
“Remember this.” Like, comedians have always had great reverence for comedians who’ve always been, like, the software update to American thinking because they’re just like, “Hey. Look at yourself. I know you wanna do all the smoke and mirrors, but look at yourself and be better.” And I think you can judge a community very easily by the things that they laugh at. And when you see a lot of laughter that is based upon the pain of another person, that’s when you’re like, “Oh, our society is not as healthy as we might think it is.” But, yeah, comedy for me has always just been like, you know, a way to be able to just, like, tell my story in a way and develop my voice because I found I became very potent as a filmmaker when I would consistently write and then be able to just, like, go in front of people. “Hey.”

David Chimusoro:
“This is what I’m thinking. Here’s the sentence structure that just naturally is going on in my mind.” And then when that works in a room, it just influences when it’s time to, like, “I wanna work on a short film. I’m putting time towards a screenplay.” It is really just like, “Alright. How potent is my pen right now? How long have I been sharpening it?” And it always translates to the screen. So to me, they’ve always been married to each other because they inform each other a lot. And in real-time, it’s fun to, like, be a filmmaker who appreciates the comedy world and be a comedian who appreciates the film world because they’re inverse of each other, but cousins, really.

Bryan Wright:
And do I hear you saying, like, “Where comedy is storytelling and being the author of your own story to tell your story as the way you want it to be told so you can be seen as the way that you wanna be seen,” Mhmm. And also comedy as a way to, as not only a marriage to society, but also to critique society, Mhmm. And to challenge it and, you know, you talk about laughter. Right? It was one of the reasons why I think, I mean, Dave Chappelle left The Chappelle Show because he realized that people were not the way they were laughing at the jokes, Mhmm. And the intent of the joke was not received or reconfirmed some of these really racist kinds of views. Right? So do you…

David Chimusoro:
Saying, “And also, like, with honesty, it’s not just like I wanna be seen how I wanna be seen. I wanna be seen how I am,” and that is like when honesty as an artist comes into play, where like, if I can’t show you the ugly parts of myself, I’m just doing marketing. And then who am I to say, “Hey, look over here. America be better or people be better,” if I can’t tell you, like, “Hey, here’s also who I am.” If I can’t make some of the jokes that I do in front of my mom, it’s just like, “I’m not hiding anything.” It’s fun.

David Chimusoro:
It’s cool. But, like, I’m here to just be like, “This is who I am. This is what I’m here to do.” I love the fact that it’s the beauty of the idea of free speech, of just like, “Hey, free speech allows us to be able to just have a table for a conversation,” and then in the marketplace of conversation, we can see that people are equal, ideas are not. So we can just say, “Alright, who has a better idea in the marketplace of conversation?” And then in the marketplace of conversation, we get to leave, you get to go home and be safe, I get to go home and be safe, and look at that. We just resolved years’ worth of conflict just at a table. There’s a reason why kings used to meet over meals versus the boardroom. You know what I mean? So Alright.

Bryan Wright:
I love how you, and you’re asking what you’re asking of the audience, you’re asking of people, you’re willing to do it yourself and you’re demonstrating vulnerability. Like, I’m gonna ask you to reveal and look at some of the things, the other things you don’t wanna look at, but I’m gonna do it here on stage in front of all of you.

Bryan Wright:
That’s right. That’s powerful.

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah. That’s very… I was just thinking, like, your work, especially, like, with some of your short films.

David Chimusoro:
Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
You know, I was looking at that, and they captured Cincinnati. And especially now, like, so you said you just did a commercial…

Bryan Wright:
Last night. Right? So you’re capturing Cincinnati at a really…

Clara Matonhodze:
Important, like, a moment in history. Mhmm. Background, every, you know, growing up in Zimbabwe, coming over here, going back to Zimbabwe, and coming back to Zimbabwe.

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
And then, working at City Hall, working with Crossroads, which is a beloved institution in Cincinnati. Mhmm. What do you want? What would you say you want people to understand about American cities through your lens? When you are looking at everything with a three-sixty view, you know, what do you want? What would you like people to understand?

David Chimusoro:
That America thus far has been the greatest builder of infrastructure that the world has ever known, which is dope, and also, but we are gardeners. We are farmers. We have to marry both. And that’s why even in model cities, the garden city model and people who implement the garden city model solve their problems very quickly. And I love that. What’s really, really cool is just like, with these large infrastructures, you really see that, like, “Oh, people are the same,” and all these things are very much more similar than people realize. And when we marry these dualities, we actually get to build the world that we’re hoping to because it’s either we build a garden or we build a tower. And it’s just like, that’s what people have always kinda fought over over time, it kinda feels like. And it’s just like, “Why not both?” Like, there’s a reason why that commercial was so powerful because it was a simple truth.

Clara Matonhodze:
Which one is it?

David Chimusoro:
The Tostitos commercial, where it’s like, “Do we have chips? Or do…”

Bryan Wright:
“We do have queso? Do we have…”

Clara Matonhodze:
“Salsa? Okay. Wait a minute. Was just…”

David Chimusoro:
“Like, pork and all those doses. That’s how…”

Clara Matonhodze:
“Tostitos came about. Okay.”

David Chimusoro:
And it also goes back to, our biggest enemy has always been the thing that even George Washington said that tribalism will kill this nation. He said it as he’s heading out, and we’re like, cool. And now at this point that we’re in, it’s like, look at us repeating the exact same thing.

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
And it’s like, okay, guys. Like, this is proven. It works. Let’s try it. It’s actually better for everybody, and we’ll all have a great time. These things work. Like, these things can actually work, and I really am excited for when we decide that. Because at the end of the day, building is a decision.

David Chimusoro:
Mhmm. And failing is a decision. Mhmm. That’s why you vote. It’s like, “Hey. Which way do you want to go?” And I say, “Let’s try some, let’s try the third thing, try the one thing that we’ve always seemed to never wanna do, which is just work together.” Like, that’s how they built the pyramids. It’s just that they work together.

David Chimusoro:
Like, it’s as simple as that. We always are like, “Oh, just like, no. Human beings are actually insanely capable of universal things.” Mhmm. We are. And we choose to not believe

Bryan Wright:
That’s the end because we…

Clara Matonhodze:
I just want you working with me on my political side.

David Chimusoro:
Exactly. Right? As long as I have a… I have a thing. I have a thing, and it’s just like, we’re all trying to build personal empires, and I would say that’s the thing that always kills us. It’s like when everybody’s trying to build a personal empire, it’s like it’s the clay. It’s the child of clay. It’s this woman who had this vision of, “Alright. I haven’t had a child, so I will build mine,” and then they’ll never scoff at me again because look at how great my… because it was like, how, look at how great this thing that I managed to build. Look at my… my powers to be able to bring life, and then it falls apart.

David Chimusoro:
And that’s exactly what we do in American science. Like, “Hey. We feed ourselves these ideas of personal empires when we’re just gonna build a garden.” It’s actually pretty dope. It’s fairly fun. Gardening is fun. My parents used the garden a lot, and I enjoyed that a lot. We had a little, like, cornfield right in our backyard.

David Chimusoro:
My mom would make us wake up. She’s like, “I’m not doing this by myself. We won’t help.” And it was, it was, it was really dope. Yeah.

Clara Matonhodze:
You are listening to Roots, Routes, and Voices, a Cincinnati Compass podcast.

Bryan Wright:
This podcast was funded in part by a grant from the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Hale Junior Foundation.

Clara Matonhodze:
Thank you for your support in helping us to share stories that make up our beautiful region, but often go unheard. Alright. David, so your story is really interesting because you didn’t consciously make the decision to say, “Hey, I am living my life in Zimbabwe, and I’m going to migrate to the USA.” Mhmm. But your parents, Mhmm, brought you here. Is that right? Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
Okay. So take us through that time. So you come back here with your parents. How old were you?

Bryan Wright:
12.

Clara Matonhodze:
12. So you went to high school here? Mhmm. What was that like? 12. 12. That’s what? That’s eighth grade?

David Chimusoro:
Yeah. I came here. It started in eighth grade. Finneytown Middle School. Go, Wildcats. Man. Oh, man. Cincinnati is interesting because we learn the power of the high school because it’s literally the question that we ask each other as far as, like, where did you go so we can

Clara Matonhodze:
Determine vessel question. No, no.

Bryan Wright:
No. It’s very Cincinnati.

David Chimusoro:
Not at all. So Cincinnati. Oh, no.

Clara Matonhodze:
Uh-uh. Zimbabweans. It’s all about where you went for high. It took, where you went for

Bryan Wright:
High school.

David Chimusoro:
Sister cities were one of the… how did you navigate here? Because you’re the same. Yeah. That is so true. So if you

Clara Matonhodze:
Ever wondered where in Cincinnati, I said, “We gotta talk about this a few days later.” But yeah. Oh my god. That is so good. So I hope

David Chimusoro:
My god is like you guys are similar. It’s crazy. So I mean, but I also learned the difference is just like, I learned the word “minority,” like, my second day of school Uh-huh. And that was mind-blowing to me. I did not know what that was because I came from a majority. Even when we lived here when I was younger, like, seven, we lived in a predominantly black neighborhood in Madisonville, so it was a predominantly black neighborhood and around black people. So it was just like, “Okay, majority, majority, majority, majority.”

David Chimusoro:
Cool. Right. And then going to Finneytown High School and actually learning about the scope of America, I was like, “Oh, there’s not a lot of us.” So that little talkie-talk thing that you love doing, you’re gonna shut up for a while and just learn and to express yourself in different things. So we get here, Family friend introduced, like, they had a film camp that was happening where they’re basically, it was at the underground. The underground was a place actually around here, and they were doing a film camp for high school kids. And the family friend was like, “This is for David. He needs to go to this.”

David Chimusoro:
And I went, and this is, like, around early ninth grade. So first year is just kind of learning the lay of the land, and I’m just kind of like, “Oh, okay. It’s completely different here.” Like, I remember because I was young from my grade, Mr. Merriweather, who was the principal at Finneytown Middle, was just like, “Hey, love all the confidence. I think it’s awesome that you come from where you come from. Just for your survival, you’re gonna need to learn to talk some things back just because this place ain’t built for that yet. So for you…”

Clara Matonhodze:
A principal?

David Chimusoro:
This is a principal telling me this as I’m, like, 12 years old. He’s just like, “Hey. So I love it. It’s for your survival. Find healthy ways and stick to your plan. You obviously have a plan. Stick to it. Have a destination.”

David Chimusoro:
“Make sure you move smart because you might not make it if you don’t, if you’re not wise.” And I was just like, “Got it.”

Clara Matonhodze:
What had you done for him to say that? What had you done for him to say that?

David Chimusoro:
Testing for the eighth grade when you’re 12. When that’s, that’s just not a normal thing. So as a black man, it was just, like, “I’ve always been protected by strong black men who care about me.”

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
Because they know, like, “Hey, yo.” Like, sometimes in a world that’s evolving and a world that’s not fully ready for you, when you see talent when people see talent and ability, they’ll either try to snuff it out or try to exploit it. And this is just, and I’m learning, like, “Oh,” part of what people talk about, like, “Oh, you’ve done so many things.” I’m just like, “Do you realize how many quiet superheroes that you all walk around, people who played against NBA finalists and they work at Speedway? Not even just like a thing, like failures. It’s like people have lived crazy stories and journeys.” And part of the thing was like, “Hey, here’s what we learned on our way.” And whenever people have been willing to impart that for me, it’s always helped me guide my way.

David Chimusoro:
So in ninth grade, I kinda learned that lesson. I’m just like, “Alright. Cool. I’m in a place where I’m new. This, like, learn, remember the fundamentals, and you’ll be fine.” So go to film camp. Fall in love with this thing. They gave us, like, this gigantic binder, and they said, “This is your first two years of film school.”

David Chimusoro:
Boom. You’re welcome. And it was a very immersive camp where by the end of it, it’s like, “We’re learning theory about film,” and just kind of, like, well, then really just kind of expressing this whole thing of storytelling. And at the end of the week assignment, we all had to make a short film with our teams. Then we were assigned teams of people. Whether you like them or not, you’re all working together to make a thing. So by the end of it, we all made a short film and we got to present in front of our families and friends. And that was just huge for me.

David Chimusoro:
It was like, “Oh, I’d always loved movies, and now I can make a one-minute version of the thing.” And this binder is going to help me figure out my way. And I kept that binder as I was making, like, my first two because I would always go through the process, and it worked. So, going to Finite Sound and also, like, I joined the band, and that’s where I think I got to express, like, “Yeah, express whatever,” what I was at the time was just kind of like, “I really just loved show,” and I just took to music very, especially as a drummer. As a kid, I just took to it. Mhmm. And I, it taught me work ethic. It taught me attention to detail, and then we were a pretty competitive band. Like, Finneytown had done, like, some pretty dope stuff as far as, like, in the state of Ohio for a tiny little class B band where we’d taken down giants of, like, of the area too and in the state just because we believed in it that much. And that and just kind of, like, informed the journey of, like, “Alright.”

David Chimusoro:
This is that. So there

Bryan Wright:
Was some,

Clara Matonhodze:
Like, in band competitions?

David Chimusoro:
Band competitions. My favorite thing was just not even, it was Friday. Friday night was when we’d play at home games. And at the time, like, Finneytown was not particularly great at football, but so the stands would be, like, half full, but we were known for the Pingtan was known for the band. So literally, when it was band time, people could not find seats, and that was just

Clara Matonhodze:
Oh, wow.

David Chimusoro:
So fun to be a part of. It was just like, “Oh, man.” Heck, yeah. So yeah. And I think that kind of guide is just like, “Hey. For some reason, when people make things and they commit to them, people just flock to…”

Bryan Wright:
Them. Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
And seeing that happen in real time.

Clara Matonhodze:
They see their passion and they probably see their talent too.

David Chimusoro:
Sure. But, like, people just like to be in front with each other and things. Mhmm. Yeah.

Clara Matonhodze:
So did you have a good formulation at that time of who you wanted to be as a filmmaker, or was this just like, “Oh, okay. That’s a hobby. Maybe I want to do something else.” At that time, what was yours, what was… when I grow up, I wanna be… How would you have completed that sentence?

David Chimusoro:
I want to be a film director.

Clara Matonhodze:
Okay.

David Chimusoro:
I was like, when I went to that camp as a little, I was like, “This is it.” Uh-huh. And people like, “How much money does it make?” “This is it.”

Clara Matonhodze:
Your parents are like, ah.

David Chimusoro:
My mom

Clara Matonhodze:
Wanted me to be

David Chimusoro:
A lawyer so bad. I have, I mean, it was like a thing of like my dad is an engineer and as a talker with an engineer’s mind is basically just a lawyer. So my mom was like, “Hell, he has that same capability. Go to law school. Law school. Law school. You can do that.” So I was like, “This is it.”

Clara Matonhodze:
You refused to go to law school?

David Chimusoro:
I think for the betterment of the world, I refuse to go.

Bryan Wright:
Have you ever heard the good guy story and he’s

David Chimusoro:
Like, I became a lawyer?

Bryan Wright:
One less…

Clara Matonhodze:
…bad lawyer. One less, bad lawyer.

David Chimusoro:
I mean, you gotta fight through it, and it’s like, it’s not fun. I don’t, I’ve never seen anyone who’s gone through that system. Like, like and that I have a better feeling about humanity as a whole after going through law school. Have you seen the show Suits? Like

Clara Matonhodze:
Don’t, stab me on Suits. Let’s not get sidetracked here.

David Chimusoro:
Fun fact. Suits, I have a personal beef with a little bit because of their Cincinnati quote. They always said, “Cincinnati is the Siberia of America.” What? That is the one thing that that show had to say about Cincinnati, Ohio. And I was like, I’m taking that personally.

Clara Matonhodze:
How did we not petition against that? I feel like “Cincinnati is the Siberia of America.”

David Chimusoro:
You can find that. It’s like, that’s the quote that they have about our city. I was like, “What? Crazy shot.”

Clara Matonhodze:
We need to talk about Suits.

Bryan Wright:
I feel like we’re in a turn though, I hope.

Clara Matonhodze:
Oh, yeah.

Bryan Wright:
Where Cincinnati, the Midwest, you know, fly-over state for Ohio and such, but there’s a lot of great things happening here. Right? And I feel like it is still frustrating to hear Suits. I mean, there are other examples of where Cincinnati becomes the butt of the joke. Right? The punchline. Mhmm. Or a character that is a throwaway character or any negative characteristic about that person is, like, “They’re from Cincinnati.” You know? It’s like, but I feel like a lot of the work that’s happening is to change that. Change the face of Cincinnati, change the identity of Cincinnati. Mhmm. And leveraging the history of it too, but also going in a new direction.

Bryan Wright:
So it’s really exciting

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah.

Bryan Wright:
About where I think we’re going.

Clara Matonhodze:
I’ll tell you, Bryan. I always have friends who say to me all the time, “What are you still doing in Cincinnati? Why is Cincinnati?” You know? And so I always send them when Forbes or whatever you do the least, like, “Cincinnati Best.” And, like, now our marathon is the best in the country and all of that. And they’re like, “Oh my gosh. You have such a small city. You have such a small city mentality. Like, why does everything have to be about the best of the best of? Like, when you’re at your best, you don’t need to show it to the world. You know? We just know.”

Clara Matonhodze:
But I’m like, “I’m constantly proving. Like, see? Look at this.”

David Chimusoro:
And that’s the thing that is like, “I wish people, I think even Cincinnati itself was like, ‘You are enough.’” Uh-huh. If we embrace that truly

Clara Matonhodze:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
Because I got to build my… what I would say, a pretty accomplished film career in a very short amount of time. Yeah. Just because of the things that I learned in this specific place. Mhmm. There’s never been, like, some crazy backing and then some angel investor will say, “Then here’s how you make all of your notes.” It’s like, the talent and hard work and proximity. Mhmm. “You are enough.” Just embrace that.

David Chimusoro:
One is a whole number. It’s really… it’s a cool thing to embrace,

Bryan Wright:
And,

David Chimusoro:
Like, it’s… we already have it. Like, sometimes I feel like we’re always waiting for, like, the better day. And it’s like, yeah. We want things to be better, but it’s also, like, what if you just realized that you already got it? Mhmm. And how much does that change your day? Yeah. How much of the infighting that happens within the self stops because you’re just like, “We’re good.”

Clara Matonhodze:
So was there, was there a moment you realized that? Like, was there a moment when you realized, “Okay. Now you’re not just maybe visiting or, you know, temporarily staying here, but, like, you’re actually shaping the story of Cincinnati in…”

David Chimusoro:
I don’t, I don’t

Clara Matonhodze:
What you… you were… what, when… What are you doing?

David Chimusoro:
I mean, when we got here, my parents were just like, “Hey. We’re here for a while. So act like it, act like it. We’re making an investment in the family because, as people again that are on the way up, it’s like we’re investing in the family.” So all of those beliefs that you were raised with, even just that all that optimism that was embedded in you as a child is for a purpose. So maximize that. Build a good family name because that’s what… like, and also not necessarily, like, in a pressured way. It was just like a thing of just, like, “This is what we’re doing as a family unit,” is, like, “I’m not just the only one in my family who’s doing amazing things.”

David Chimusoro:
Like, DePaul Cristo Rey, which is a high school here. My little sister was their first valedictorian. Like, she is doing incredible things in Austin, Texas. My brother is a talented musician who has influenced the sound of the city just by being himself, and also just being a good dude. And it’s been really fun to know that I’m part of a whole, that we’re trying to… we’re trying to do something. And I’m grateful that, like, I’ve been allowed to be able to be a contributor. So to say I’m shaping anything, there’s too many people doing really, really great work to say, and look at what I’m doing. It’s like, no.

David Chimusoro:
Considering the Cincinnati family and even last night, me and my friends were putting together kind of a show before I went back home, and it was just, like, really fun to see. Like, there have been some incredible people who have been tilling the soil for a while, and I’m just grateful that I got to be a guy with a camera and a specific lens that people said, “Oh, I didn’t know. I never saw it like that.” So my entry point even in Cincinnati was, like, as a photographer in the hip hop scene. And people just gravitated because people had never really seen, particularly local hip hop artists photographed with, what I wanna say is, “Life, like, fullness of life, like expression and all that.” And I got to be a part of the way that I got to update that look a little bit. And also with the mind of, like, “I wanna use this as I’m developing my eye into being able to have the visual language of a director that I wanna have.” I was just a guy with a camera that was just showing what was around me.

Bryan Wright:
And

David Chimusoro:
That’s why for me, I’m like, “You are enough.” Like, “I don’t have to build this story; I ain’t had to go to LA or New York or Chicago.” I’ve gone to visit, but I didn’t have to go to those places to be able to build this. I got to do this right here just by showing and looking at the things that are around me instead of, like, it’s dope when we get to the spots because, I mean, the big moments when you hear and the grand champion is Finneytown High School change your… they change your ability, like, your worldview. It was just like, “We didn’t expect our name to be called, but we somehow did it. It’s like, we know how we did it.” It’s because we were a family unit throughout this thing. We carried each other, and we never let our talents aside.

David Chimusoro:
We all lifted each other up, and so we’re gonna create this unit. We’re gonna have a direction. This is what we do this for, and then we did it for it. So accolades are fun. We deserve them. I think people, these accolades are a testament to the daily work that people are doing. So I don’t get mad when we, like, end up on a list because that’s dope. It’s because people are really doing the work to put us on the list, but guess what? Your name is more important than the list.

David Chimusoro:
Right.

Bryan Wright:
Yeah. I love what you’re saying about earlier, about “You are enough,” and hearing that from family, from friends. So I think about these two thoughts going in my head. One, I moved here on 02/2008. We moved here in 02/2008 and almost left, but we stayed, for a variety of reasons, but someone told me that Cincinnati is a DIY town. That if you wanna do something, you’ll find three or four people like that or wanna build that idea and work with you to do it. And the way you’re describing it kinda filled in some gaps in my mind about how that works. But it’s other people telling you, “You are enough.”

Bryan Wright:
You are enough. You are a talented filmmaker because some of us have, you know, what is it, imposter syndrome. Right?

Clara Matonhodze:
Yes.

Bryan Wright:
And the very other things that were built in, whether it might be society telling you or a community that you’re not enough. Mhmm. And so you’re fighting against that. Mhmm. And then your internal struggles, because you internalize that. Mhmm. You objectively. Right? And you internalize that.

Bryan Wright:
But then to have a community of people, a region saying, like, “You are enough to do whatever it is you’re passionate about.” I think that’s really powerful, the way that you’re describing, of that, that, that you’re living that experience and bringing other people along for that journey as well. Right? To where, and I, you know, you talked about these individual empires and, I, but I, I hear you talking about moving to these collective gardens. You’ve talked about empires, you’ve talked about gardens, and you always land in the garden where it’s… you’re “We are tilling, we are seeding.” It moves from this “I” to a “We” to this more kind of collective thing, and I think that’s where we go forward. Mhmm. And I just, it starts with the individual by saying, like, “You are enough,” but then it also goes into, like, “We collectively need to do this.” I think it… yeah.

David Chimusoro:
It’s great. It’s… it’s a… and that’s the beauty of actual life, like, “I’m not making up some foreign concept.” Like, those are real things that people have done to rule out time. Like, and when we always embrace our role as nurturers of the world around us, like, animals like us more. Like, that’s kinda crazy when we do that. Like, we have that specific capability as people. And but when we come in and we’re saying, “This land is so that I can build my tower,” everything just dissipates and eventually collapses. And it’s like, “Why not do the thing that we’ve seen work again throughout time? It’s always been this way.”

David Chimusoro:
We’ve always, we’ve always been like this. We just sometimes forget it. And then part of the thing that sucks is, like, we get fed, like, “You are not enough,” and they, whoever they are, are the reason you are not enough.

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
And then something gets awoken inside where the internal battle now becomes an external one. And now we’re like, “What? What’s about to happen now?” Like, that’s… and it’s like, “We can just not.” So we can just not be kinda crazy. Mhmm. Like, “Do you want the red pill or blue pill?” It’s like, “Why are you trying to give me pills? I don’t know you.” Okay.

Bryan Wright:
You need

Clara Matonhodze:
To calm down. So tell us about some of the things you’re working on. What are you creating right now?

David Chimusoro:
Man, Monday, me and my buddy and longtime collaborator, Noah Vanilia, have some time at the art museum, so we’re just gonna film some stuff. Like, part of it is a…

Clara Matonhodze:
General. By the time we… In general? By the time we air, this manhood has gone. Alright.

Bryan Wright:
But it’s basically kind of like so, like,

Clara Matonhodze:
In 2025, what’s the thing that you’re working on?

David Chimusoro:
Oh, that’s… that’s for me, I work on what’s happening right now. So sometimes people, like, “Be like, ‘So what is it?’” And I’m like, “Hey. I might have a project that comes into my mind in a week, and I want it done in two weeks,” and I got people who understand. So it’s like, if I’ve got a project, I’m gonna say, “Project 2025.” That’s crazy.

Bryan Wright:
We need to take that back. It’s inappropriate. Right?

Clara Matonhodze:
I love that. We all have our own Project 2025. Talking about personal, king personal empires. Right? So I just need to… someone’s empire. What’s your own personal Project 2025 empire?

David Chimusoro:
Make more stuff. Get the ability to do it in more real time. That’s all. That’s the plan. So if it’s like my collaborators, especially the ones that I’ve gotten to do this, and I was like, “David, if David calls and he says, ‘I have an idea, Mhmm. Something’s about to happen,’” So like, and it always feeds into the next. And that’s the cool thing about, I love having such a rich tapestry to pull from.

David Chimusoro:
It’s like, “If I wanna make a music video and we have the things around us, we make that.” And “If we wanna be a short film, I’m a good, like, I am a trained enough writer where it’s like, I can crank something out within a week or two so that we can just use it as a baseline to be able to continue to move this thing forward.” Mhmm. And it’s, I’m working on not even just being precious with it. Like, I have standards of quality that I always wanted, but it’s just, like, “2025 is just, like, we’re throwing it out,” whatever we’re making, we’re just making. That’s the plan. And it feels like there’s an appetite, and especially with the hope of going home to be able to contribute is, like, there is a big, big appetite for the Zimbabwean image that we were trying or even just the story that we were trying to tell in the eighties and nineties that kind of built what I am now.

David Chimusoro:
I can see just kind of, like, looking through what I’m looking at. So, “Oh, the appetite is now. So let’s just get together,” and also, like, I wanna teach. I really love being able to teach what I’ve learned because I want to see more dope filmmakers. I don’t wanna be the only one out here. It sucks. It’s terrifying. It’s a big old industry, but it’s like, “Man, if we have highly trained, loving, skilled filmmakers that are just popping out by the boatloads and they get to be a part of that, what?” Yeah, man.

Clara Matonhodze:
Yeah. Yeah.

David Chimusoro:
Yeah. That’s what I wanna do. That’s what I wanna do as well.

Clara Matonhodze:
That is pretty interesting. I like the way you say, Zimbabwe or what? You said the nineties?

Bryan Wright:
Like, the eighties and nineties.

Clara Matonhodze:
Eighties and the nineties. Yeah. Because when I was coming up in college in Zimbabwe, Mhmm. My life was filled with film festivals hosted in Zimbabwe. Right? Theatre, Alliance Française, British Council, you know, all those notable Zimbabwean filmmakers. It was just really hopping and popping and so vibrant. Mhmm. Zimbabwean art, you know, sculptures, like the botanical gardens.

Clara Matonhodze:
It was lovely. And it’s great to know that that renaissance, that that’s coming back.

David Chimusoro:
Oh my god.

Clara Matonhodze:
What? It’s a wave that you’re trying to catch. Right? So you’re going back home.

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

Clara Matonhodze:
You’re going back to Zoom.

David Chimusoro:
I’m back to Zoom.

Clara Matonhodze:
Uh-huh. Going to try and catch that wave. What is the plot that nobody sees coming with you?

David Chimusoro:
Whatever the writers decide. I’m part of Something.

Clara Matonhodze:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
I did not make myself. I popped here 04/14/1994. Mhmm. And I… it felt like I was a part of something.

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
And I feel like I’m a part of something.

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
And the thesis statement in a lot of our stories is, like, “Hey. You are a part of something, and it’s all going towards someone.” So, hopefully, I stay good by the writers’ eyes where they’re like, “Hey. Keep going. You like it.” Mhmm. Whatever the writers decide, and that’s the plot twist. Yeah.

David Chimusoro:
It’s whatever they decide.

Clara Matonhodze:
Uh-huh. And Cincinnati?

David Chimusoro:
I mean, we’re stuck with this, with each other at this point.

Bryan Wright:
So you know? Always.

Clara Matonhodze:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
Like, it’s at the end of the day, like, we don’t get here without Cincinnati. Right?

Clara Matonhodze:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
So what’s that with each other? And I wanna be a bridge. I wanna be a real bridge of just being like, it’s kind of crazy, just like these two completely polar parts of the world, low key, just have always had this little kinship. And it’s like, the Avondale back in our, in back in Zimbabwe was incorporated seven years after the Avondale in Cincinnati. And that’s in the eighteen hundreds. So it’s not like, oh, the eighties or nineteen eighties. Like, no. For some reason, even in just the way that we name things there has always been a kinship between the two.

Clara Matonhodze:
Between the two. Yeah. Between the two sis, between these two sister cities.

David Chimusoro:
Mhmm. Yeah.

Clara Matonhodze:
Because we have Avondale too in Zimbabwe. Mhmm. Yeah. There’s plenty of names that are together. So you know what,

David Chimusoro:
I mean? You know what,

Clara Matonhodze:
I’m thinking that most immigrant stories are about staying. Right? And, but you are flipping the script. You are flipping the script and going back to and going back to Zimbabwe, so how does that feel to be like a reverse immigrant? Even though you’re only leaving us for a while. Right? Because we absolutely still need you. But how does that feel to flip the script and go back?

David Chimusoro:
There is a story of an African samurai named Yusuke. We’re talking about this. He comes from, he came from, the Mozambique area, which is one of our neighboring countries. And the interesting story about this man was he was a samurai, but he was never a slave. And when they first interacted with the shogun who he was in the service of because of his dark skin, they thought he had paint on and they tried to wash him because they were like, “How do you get this paint off?” He’s just like, “This is who I am.” And it’s a fun thing to know like, “Oh, we are all indigenous,” and I’m just here to prove, like, “Oh, the ground that you walk on, if you are nurturing it, it’ll treat you like you are indigenous to…”

Bryan Wright:
It. Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
And that is a beautiful thing about, I’ve gotten to see so much. I’ve gotten to go all over the world because of the power of the camera. And in every single place that I’ve gotten to be, I know what human kindness feels like. I know what laughter sounds like. I know what a good picture looks like. Every single place, you have a good picture that you can paint. And it’s like, “Oh, guess what? That’s everywhere.”

Clara Matonhodze:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
So you are only an immigrant if you tell yourself that because you’re putting yourself on a clock. “I’m not an immigrant. That’s a night. I’m an indigenous settlement. I’m just David.”

Bryan Wright:
Mhmm.

David Chimusoro:
And David is still David in Cincinnati, Zimbabwe, Australia, France, wherever.

Bryan Wright:
To everyone at home, we appreciate you for joining us today. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to Roots, Routes, and Voices That Shape America wherever you stream your podcast. Visit www.CincinnatiCompass.org to sign up for our newsletter and stay connected about upcoming community events.

Clara Matonhodze:
Our producers are Asim Mishu and Jane Muindi. Sound engineering and mixing provided by Hardcast Media, AllSat engineers, Peter and Audrey, and eleven twenty seven Media. A very special thank you to the Forest Park branch of Cincinnati Hamilton County Public Library for hosting. And to the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Hale Junior Foundation for sponsoring our podcast. I’m your host, Clara Matonhodze. Thanks for listening.